Medical professionals encounter stressful situations throughout their careers. Depending on the frequency of those situations, those professionals may reach their limit and hit burnout faster than most. Martha Janiver is a retired family nurse practitioner who pivoted into owning an assisted living facility (ALF). Her ALF is called Peace of his Cornerstone, it is in Miami, FL. She shifted into this business venture that is less intense but just as rewarding in the medical field. After successfully being in business for four years, Janvier is now teaching individuals how they can open an assisted living facility in her program Strategic Success 316.

“Caring for the senior community changed my life. I understand people a lot more, and I call what I do philanthropic work. This is not just any type of business; it is changing lives, not just the elderly, but the family members, the caregivers that come with it,” said Martha Janvier, CEO of Strategic Success 316.

Janvier founded Strategic Success 316 in November 2022. The company is a coaching and consulting firm that provides information to people who want to establish and operate assisted living facilities. Their flagship course, How to Open an ALF, costs $1,000 and is self-paced. After completing the program and doing all the required registrations and permitting, anyone can launch their facility in a year and a half.

Janvier committed to this direction after working through the pandemic. She opened Peace of his Cornerstone in 2019 and quickly gained patients for the facility. When the pandemic happened, she took a year-long break from nursing to manage the ALF. When she returned to nursing, Janvier reached high levels of stress and anxiety. She decided it was no longer worth it and instead dealt with the pressures of the ALF. In May 2023, she retired from nursing.

Commitment and capital are two things one should possess to get started on this path.

Launching Peace of His Cornerstone took Janiver two years and $30,000. She already had furnished property, but the licensing and permitting took time because she figured it out by trial and error. Other steps involved with launching this venture are checking with the zoning department in your area, installing the right equipment in the facility, and hiring the right staff to take care of older adults. Janvier offers help on any of these steps through Strategic Success 316. Janvier says people can earn six figures within a year of opening this recession-proof business.

“Whatever is going on in the world, seniors will always need somewhere to stay, and seniors will always need assistance. The housing crisis that is going on has a lot of them resorting to assisted living facilities. There are a lot of seniors where their social security income or pension cannot maintain the cost of living.” said Janvier.

Staffing is a vital factor in the success of one’s ALF. According to Janvier, the wrong caregiver on your team can drive away current facility residents, regardless of everything else. Staff is one of the details that brought Paul Robert to Janiver’s ALF. Roberts placed his mother in the Peace of His Cornerstone living facility in 2019. Roberts is the Vice chairman of the board of directors for Jessie Trice Community Health Services in Miami, FL. He is aware of how things should run in an ALF and how caregiving is a passion one needs to have to do this work.

“Everybody can’t provide healthcare. Everyone is not a caregiver. It’s something that is within you to really be a caregiver. The sacrifice you must make to provide service to somebody else is above nothing else,” said Roberts 

“In some facilities, I didn’t feel comfortable leaving my mother there. I felt like they were turnstiles to make money and not to take care of the client. Martha never gave me the impression,” said Roberts.

What’s next for Janiver is getting more people into this line of work. She believes the more individuals she trains to open ALFs, the more significant impact she makes on the healthcare industry and the senior community. 

“Owning a quality assisted living facility means building generational wealth for your children and grandchildren. Owning an assisted living facility also means changing the healthcare industry by lowering unnecessary death rates in the senior community. Contact me so I can teach you how to maintain the lives of others,” said Janiver.    

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In June 2021, Shundra Seay Massey, a 29-year-old married influencer from Atlanta, started seeing a chiropractor for back pain. A licensed and registered dietician, Shundra had always taken care of herself, through diet and exercise, and thought she had just slept wrong or something. What followed was more pain—excruciating this time—in her stomach and then her back again, tests and more tests, and delay. A delay in her diagnosis of colon cancer.

By October 25, Shundra was gone, leaving behind a son who wasn’t even two years old, a loving husband, and scores of family members, friends and followers to mourn the loss of such a vibrant, positive force. She also left behind a mother with a mission.

That mission, says her mother, Rosonja Seay, is to raise awareness about young-onset colorectal cancer, which affects patients under the age of 50. Think Chadwick Boseman, the acclaimed actor who died from colon cancer in 2020 at the age of 43. With current guidelines calling for screening at age 45 (down from 50 just a few years ago), Seay, who lives in Newnan, Georgia, says it is important to realize that waiting that long can have devastating, deadly implications.

“My mission and purpose in life is to let young people know that this is not an old person’s disease,” says Seay, who still runs her influencer daughter’s Instagram account BrownMommyDiary. “Even though the screening age is 45, I feel like that is just so unfair. . . . Young people between the ages of 18 to 35 are at risk but nowhere near the age of screening.”

Colorectal cancer, which starts in the colon or rectum, is the most common of all human cancers, says Dr. Olatunji Alese, associate professor and director of gastrointestinal oncology in the Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology at the Emory University School of Medicine. Because colorectal cancer often isn’t diagnosed until it has spread or grown, it is best to get screened before you start having any problems.

Symptoms include a change in bowel habits that lasts longer than a few days, a feeling that you need to have a bowel movement that isn’t lessened by having one, rectal bleeding with bright red blood, weakness and fatigue, blood in the stool, cramping or abdominal pain and unexplained weight loss. Each year, more than 150,000 new cases are diagnosed each year, and up to 52,000 Americans die of colorectal cancer on a yearly basis, Alese says.

Colorectal cancer also disproportionately affects the African American community, with Blacks in the U.S. being about 20 percent more likely to get the disease, and about 40 percent more likely to die from it than most other ethnic groups, according to the American Cancer Society.

But recent statistics have shown a trend that has alarmed researchers: the portion of diagnoses of this type of cancer among adults younger than 55 in the U.S. increased to 20 percent in 2019—up from 11 percent in 1995. Even as overall colorectal cancer death rates fell by nearly 60 percent between 1970 and 2020—the result, studies show, of increased screenings—death rates have climbed among people younger than 50.

Without intervention, by 2040, colorectal cancer will be the leading cause of death in adults aged 20 to 49. Moreover, by 2030, colon cancer cases are projected to increase by 90 percent in patients under age 35, and rectal cancer cases are expected to rise by 124 percent in that age group. For both African Americans and young people, diagnosis usually comes once the cancer has reached an advanced stage and is more difficult to treat.

Alese says that although the screening age has been lowered, the guidelines are still missing a good number of patients, especially minority patients. It will take a sustained community effort to make change. “I have seen way too many young African Americans with stage four cancer which was completely preventable,” Alese says. “It’s going to take everything possible. It’s going to take a lot of education, community engagement, patient advocacy to actually attract a lot of attention to this issue.”

Seay believes that if she knew her history of colonic polyp removal and signs and symptoms like back pain and abdominal pain could be cause for screening, it may have saved her daughter’s life. Eddie Lee Massey III would still have a wife and Eddie IV’s mom would still be here, reveling in her role as “Boy Mama.”

“I remember saying to Shundra when I was recovering, ‘You and your sister probably need to get screened starting around the age of 40.’ Because, again, we didn’t know,” Seay says. “No one ever said to us because you had to have this procedure done, your children probably need to be screened early.”

While Shundra “fought with everything in her” and remained hopeful until the very end because of her and her family’s strong Christian faith, Seay says the fight is hers now. She has started a petition to change the age for colonoscopy screenings.

“For young people, don’t be afraid,” Seay says. “At least talk to your doctor. Even if you don’t get screened, start a conversation. And if you see some changes, make sure you go to the doctor. Don’t ignore them. Don’t think, ‘I’m 25 and this can’t happen to me.’ Shundra was 29 years old when she was diagnosed. She was 29 years old.”

The post Rise in colon cancer among young people, African Americans, cause for concern appeared first on The Atlanta Voice.

Being a Black nurse in America sometimes means caring for patients while protecting them from racism at the same time. 

This was the case for Naseema McElroy, a California-based labor and delivery nurse who demanded better care for Black moms and was fired shortly after. 

“Nobody’s going to change [the medical system] for us,” McElroy, 41, told Word In Black in a video interview. “We have to do it ourselves.”

One day in March 2018, McElroy happened to be on the clock when her friend came in to give birth at the Oakland hospital where she worked. 

Had they missed one another, McElroy wouldn’t have been able to save the mom from an unmedicated emergency C-section that could’ve been fatal. 

The mother intended to have a vaginal birth after a previous Cesarean section (also known as a VBAC), but after being given an epidural during labor, a midwife called for an emergency C-section.

At that point, things moved dangerously fast, according to McElroy. 

She watched her friend be dragged onto a gurney because her legs were numb from the pain medicine and then rolled into the operating room. 

The mom’s catheter slipped out in the process, stopping the flow of medication. 

McElroy said the rapid pace was due to a change of shift taking place. Some staff were clocking in while others were clocking out. The operating room was packed, and communication from the team was poor. 

“There wasn’t any communication. So, that was a safety issue,” McElroy says. “You had two shifts of nurses, respiratory therapists, and doctors in the room.”

As a primary nurse, McElroy says the team was supposed to keep her up to speed on what was happening — and why — but they didn’t. So, she did what she felt was her only option to stop the surgery.

“I literally had to roll my body across her to stop them from cutting her open unmedicated,” she recalls. “I had to literally yell and call a hard stop and was like, ‘no, you are not about to cut her.’”

Moments later, the attending doctor walked in and noted that the birth actually wasn’t supposed to be an emergency C-section. 

 McElroy said her friend had no idea what was going on. 

“She didn’t know her epidural had gotten pulled out,” she says. “It was just like a state of confusion. I just remember looking in her eyes and seeing how scared she was.”

A week later, McElroy addressed her concerns about the situation to the head of obstetrics, who was also a Black woman, but was disregarded.

Black pregnant women all over the country fear hospital experiences like this — or worse, dying because no one saved them. 

In 2018, Black women were dying from pregnancy-related complications at two-and-a-half times the rate of white women. That remains the same today.

According to a 2022 study by the American Society of Anesthesiologists, Black women are 53% more likely to die in a hospital during childbirth, no matter their income level or type of insurance.

Systemic racism is the major cause behind these disparities.

After being dismissed, undertreated, violated, and ignored, Black mothers are leaving hospitals traumatized — if they make it out alive. 

But sometimes, those who witness the neglect of Black women in hospitals are impacted, too. 

Just a few weeks after supporting her friend, McElroy said she had to advocate for another pregnant woman whose pain was dismissed during labor. After witnessing both patients escape potentially fatal complications, she broke down mentally. 

“I’m in the parking lot on my way to work every day crying like ‘this can’t be life,’” she says. 

Her job referred her to a therapist who told her she needed to take time off because she was traumatized. But that never happened. Her employer denied her time off, so she called out sick. 

She says she then received a notice that she was terminated for “being absent.” 

McElroy chose to take a stand by filing a lawsuit. The process wasn’t easy. She says that her mental health was questioned, and she had a hard time finding witnesses to support her claims. 

“When I was reaching out to people to validate my story, they would ghost because they were scared of losing their job,” she says. 

The battle came to an end in 2020 when she won a settlement. 

“We have to work together in order to change this because, like I said, nobody is going to do it for us,” she says.

McElroy may have been among the first nurses to gain national attention for her story, but many share her experiences. 

In a survey conducted by the National Commission to Address Racism in Nursing, 92% of Black nurses reported experiencing racism on the job. 

The nurses went on to report that racist acts came from different parties — 70% from leaders, 66% from peers, and 68% from patients. 

Of the nurses who challenged racism in the workplace, 64% said their efforts didn’t result in any change.

Like McElroy, over half of the nurses reported that racism in the workplace negatively affected their well-being. 

The American Nurses Association (ANA) has been on a mission to address racism since it formed the National Commission to Address Racism in Nursing in 2020 following the murder of George Floyd. 

Cheryl A. Peterson, vice president of the ANA Nursing Programs and a leader of the National Commission to Address Racism in Nursing, helped conduct the national survey on racism.

“We did a listening session where we heard the very painful words of nurses of color who talked about their experiences, both from their colleagues and systemically as employees, and then also from patients,” she told Word In Black in a phone interview. 

The commission was created as a collaboration between ANA, the National Black Nurses Association, the National Association of Hispanic Nurses, and the National Coalition of Ethnic Minority Nurse Association. 

One of its goals is to “develop strategies to actively address racism within nursing education, practice, policy, and research, including addressing issues of leadership and the use of power.”

The group plans to launch another commission focusing on funding programs and strategies addressing racism at the direct care level between nurses and patients. 

“So, how are we talking about racism among nurses and trying to really address bias and really make improvements,” Peterson says. 

Overall, as a registered nurse herself, she agrees that racism in nursing is an issue that must be addressed collectively by nurses.

“The reality is we’ve got racism in nursing, and it is doing harm to nurses of color, and it’s doing harm to the patients that we care for, and it’s doing harm in the communities in which we serve.”

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As if it weren’t enough that Black Americans are subject to a range of health disparities that are rooted in systemic racism, studies point to yet another long-standing disparity in sleep patterns that has serious health and quality of life implications.

Having trouble sleeping? You’re not alone. According to a study by the Centers for Disease Control, Black people in America are 58% more likely to get less sleep each night than they need to maintain optimum health as compared to white people. On the other end of the sleep spectrum, Black people are 62% more likely than white people to sleep more than 9 hours a night. Both sleeping too little and sleeping too much can cause health problems. The sweet spot for most adults is 7 to 9 hours a night.  

Quality sleep is a basic human need, as important as food and water and researchers say that the physical consequences of not getting enough quality sleep range from increased levels of heart disease, diabetes, stroke, kidney disease, high blood pressure and obesity. Lack of sleep has also been linked to a higher chance of non-alcohol-related car accidents, falls and even plane and train crashes, among other catastrophic workplace accidents.

Not enough or poor quality sleep also leads to mental health impacts including depression, increased anxiety, and inappropriate or negative responses to stress. Lack of sleep influences the ability to perceive the world accurately and can lead to increased violent behavior and suicide. Not getting enough sleep impairs cognition, the ability to focus, and concentration and can lead to a higher risk of dementia.

In fact, disordered sleep may be one of the underlying causes for many of the health disparities that American Black people experience. But even that is impacted by systemic racism.

According to the National Institutes of Health: “Experiences of racial discrimination are common for Black Americans and have been associated with depression and sleep disturbance, factors likely involved in the insidious development of health disparities.”

The federal agency further asserts that Black Americans frequently experience multiple chronic stress:

“…resulting from both institutionalized racism (e.g., lower socioeconomic status) housing and food insecurity, neighborhood disadvantage;  and interpersonal racism (i.e., perceived everyday experiences of discrimination). Structural racism and internalized schemas linked to repeated social messages about race can reinforce experiences of interpersonal racism, resulting in messages of exclusion, disempowerment, and devaluation and potentiating biological consequences as well as consequences for sleep.”

But short of the immediate dismantling of white supremacy and the instantaneous healing of generations of trauma, there are some clear actions that most people can take to improve their sleep and thereby positively increase good health and overall enjoyment of life.

According to Ike Ekekwe, MD, a sleep medicine doctor in Atlanta, Georgia, it’s important to pinpoint the type of sleep disturbance you may be experiencing.“Some people find it very difficult to fall asleep. Usually, when you get to a comfortable sleeping position and a comfortable environment, you should be able to fall asleep within half an hour. That’s about average, anything more than that we call that sleep onset insomnia.”

He also cited sleep maintenance insomnia, a situation where you fall asleep, wake up and not be able to fall asleep within a short period of time, and obstructive sleep apnea. “OSA is a debilitating sleep disorder characterized mainly by people having interruptions in their breathing where they, you know, find it difficult to maintain smooth, sleeping patterns. They have periods where their tongue (will) fall back, close the airways, and then they wake up gasping for air.”

For the first two issues, difficulty falling asleep and difficulty falling back to sleep after awakening at night, a good sleep hygiene routine is essential. “We always advise everyone to try not to look at their phones and computers later in the evening,” Dr. Ikekwe says. “Because the LED lights from screens, including the TV, is sending the message to the pineal gland in your brain to not produce the melatonin you need to fall asleep.”

He also mentioned going to bed earlier and if possible, at the same time every evening, even on the weekends. “Keep the room cool, dark and quiet,” he advised. “Some people like to keep the television on, not to watch but for background noise. In that case, we suggest they use a white noise device.” For obstructive sleep disorders, which can be characterized by snoring and periods of time without breathing followed by gasping for air, making an appointment to see a sleep specialist is extremely important. Left untreated, OSA can cause major health problems.

Daily exercise helps, and there are light stretches that, done at bedtime, can help facilitate a good night’s sleep. Avoid large meals, caffeine and alcohol before bed and try to put work aside to spend this time as self-care, enjoying your family and engaging in a quiet activity that doesn’t involve screens of any kind. It’s a tall order, but the payoff in the extra energy, mental clarity and emotional resilience is well worth it.

Dr. Ikekwe recognizes that for many, these sleep solutions are easier said than done, especially for people of color and poor people who work non-standard schedules. “When we look at sleep patterns in America, brown and Black people tend to do more hourly jobs that entail going to work in the evening and getting off work in the morning,” he noted. “Those jobs are very necessary to run the economy in the country, but you know, that’s not natural and overall, it is going to negatively affect your health long-term.”

But Black managerial, executive and entrepreneur workers are not immune either.  “Of course, people who have high-level jobs that come with a lot of stress, often are not able to release that stress when the workday is over, they take their jobs home and continue working. I don’t think (it) is more skewed toward African Americans. I think it’s skewed toward Type A personality people who have high-level, high-stress jobs,” Ekekwe said. Racial stress and unreasonable expectations are layered on top of that.

Ultimately, as always, we have to empower ourselves to be well, taking the steps by any means necessary to engage in a life-affirming, health-promoting lifestyle, eating well, moving our bodies, cultivating healthy relationships, resting and sleeping.

In her book Rest is Resistance: A Manifesto, Tricia Hersey, founder of Atlanta-based The Nap Ministry writes that “Capitalism was created on plantations. The roots of it are violence and theft. We as a culture gloss over this historical truth. But, to dive into the cracks of this reality is where a profound part of your deprogramming from grind culture resides…To be colonized is to accept and buy into the lie of our worth being connected to how much we get done…We must rest.”

The post Every Shut Eye Ain’t Sleep appeared first on The Atlanta Voice.

For Samuel L. Jackson, his Apple TV+ limited series “The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey” is very personal. Adapted from Walter Mosley’s 2010 book of the same title, the series centers 91-year-old Ptolemy Grey who suffers from dementia. Generally written off by his family, save for his nephew Reggie, played by Omar Benson Miller, Ptolemy is largely a hermit who lives in squalor. When Reggie stops coming by, Robyn, the teenage daughter of his niece’s friend, who has passed away, and needs a place to stay, steps in and up, cleaning Ptolemy’s apartment and becoming his caretaker. 

The focus on dementia and Alzheimer’s is something that hits home for Jackson. “I’m from a family where I felt like I was surrounded by Alzheimer’s. My grandfather, my uncle, my aunt, my mom, there are people on my father’s side who have Alzheimer’s, and I watched them change, deteriorate, and become different people over the years,” he shared with journalists during the 2022 Television Critics Association tour. 

According to the Alzheimer’s Association’s annual report, Alzheimer’s Disease Facts and Figures, from 2021, “one in nine people age 65 and older (11.3%) has Alzheimer’s dementia,” accounting for 6 million Americans and “older Black Americans are about twice as likely to have Alzheimer’s or other dementias as older whites.” 

So, Jackson is helping to raise awareness by putting a Black face to the disease. Still, for Jackson, it’s just personal. “Being able to tell their story or listening to them and understanding that things in their past are more their present than what’s going on in their everyday life and understanding how to convey that to people” is more the motivator than representation.  

With “The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey,” Jackson also wanted to ensure that those who love folks struggling with dementia and Alzheimer’s, as well as the caregivers and the sufferers themselves, felt seen. “Giving an audience an opportunity to know that they aren’t the only people who watch their loved ones deteriorate that way, who need an outlet to look at someone else dealing with those particular things, and having a young person like Robyn, played by Dominique (Fishback), to come in and access this person and to look at that person like they were worthwhile, that the memories that they have aren’t a place that they should abandon. That it’s OK to have that, that it’s OK to remember. It’s OK to live in a place, and that you are still a worthwhile individual even though a lot of people discard you.” 

Alzheimer’s and dementia have become more common, with a projection that 12.7 million Americans, more than double the number now, will suffer with the disease by 2050. It has also become more deadly. According to the report, “between 2000 and 2019, the number of deaths from Alzheimer’s disease as recorded on death certificates has more than doubled, increasing 145.2%, while the number of deaths from the number one cause of death (heart disease) decreased 7.3%.” On top of that, “among people age 70, 61% of those with Alzheimer’s dementia are expected to die before the age of 80 compared with 30% of people without Alzheimer’s — a rate twice as high.”

When asked how he copes with aging, Jackson, who is 73, replied “exercise, diet, understanding how to take care of yourself.  I finally — once I sobered up (alluding to his past challenges with addiction), I discovered the value of sleep. I used to sleep like three hours a night. But sleep is so valuable, and I treasure it now. And people say I’m blessed because I can sit down and just go to sleep and wake up in 15 minutes and do something.” 

“Reading, making sure that I keep my mind active, giving myself an opportunity to exercise my mental capacity the same way people will exercise their bodies …  There are a lot of different things. And, fortunately, I made enough money,” he laughed, “to get people to massage me and I discovered acupuncture, all these things that hopefully will keep me vital for at least another 20 years.”

A lot of these strategies also come highly recommended from the National Institute on Aging. Ultimately, Jackson believes “The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey” is “an honest and, hopefully, endearing assessment of the deterioration of life that a lot of us face, feel in a personal way with someone who’s in our family or maybe people who feel themselves slipping and need to see and find a way to pull themselves back.”  

“The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey” is streaming on Apple TV+ now.

The post Samuel L. Jackson Takes on Dementia and Alzheimer’s in His Apple TV+ Limited Series The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey appeared first on The Atlanta Voice.

Black men are just as human as everyone else. They feel a range of emotions, dream of living a good life, and experience ups and downs — yet, they’re not always supported in expressing their feelings. 

Because society enforces the idea that men must neglect their emotional and mental well-being to be considered “manly,” many Black men suffer in silence. Or worse, with Black men being four times more likely to commit suicide than Black women, they die without receiving the care they deserve. 

“What ends up happening for most Black males is that we start to internalize that pain,” says Brandon Jones, a psychotherapist who specializes in intergenerational trauma and adverse childhood experiences.

Jones says Black males learn to internalize their pain at a young age, “And that pain starts to manifest itself in anger or a drinking habit or drug habit or abusiveness towards other people because we haven’t figured out how to — in a healthy way or therapeutic way — address some of that pain,” he says.

For Black boys, in particular, Jones says sports often become an outlet for anger when there are no healthy systems in place. 

As a boy who was abused by his stepfather and neglected by his biological father, Jones says he used football to cope. 

“I literally would try to hurt people. Like, my goal was to send somebody home in an ambulance every game. Now that’s kind of psychotic when you think about it, but that was me on the peewee football level,” he says. 

As opposed to the biases about Black boys being angrier and less innocent than other children, Jones notes that they actually have something to be upset about. 

Like other fatherless males who grew up with “father hunger,” he says he was “pissed about everything because no one sees me. No one’s helping me. No one’s teaching me how to tie a tie. No one’s teaching me how to shave. No one’s teaching me what men should have, like a watch and a wallet.”

When left untreated, these traumas not only affect a boy’s development, they also affect how he lives as an adult. 

Like Jones, George Johnson, an entrepreneur, author, and star basketball player, had a breakdown as an adult before eventually going to therapy to address his past traumas.

It took going to the gym and being unable to lift a bench press bar for the lifelong athlete to realize he needed help. 

“I thought something physically was wrong with me, but after going to the doctor and getting an assessment, I was depressed. And so my body was breaking down internally, not physically,” he recalls. 

Johnson grew up in Richmond, Virginia, where poverty, violence, and family dysfunction were normalized. In his recently released memoir, “Double Crossed,” he speaks about how basketball kept him away from illegal activity, yet his mental health was still affected by his environment. 

He went to college to play basketball while other people he knew went to prison. But after becoming a million-dollar entrepreneur post-graduation, Johnson found himself in the middle of a federal investigation with two of his brothers, who he says used him as a “crutch” to help themselves out.

“I got so far away from just the inner city or the hood, or where I’m from, I still ended up being caught up in the same traps and loopholes like my peers and my family back home,” Johnson says about spending the last four years in a legal battle. 

The ordeal with his family took a toll on his health, but Johnson beat the odds by choosing to get help. Only 26.4% of Black men, ages 18 to 44, who experience daily feelings of anxiety or depression are likely to have used mental health services, compared to 45.4% of white men; according to a 2015 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

And now, as a Black man who found success in therapy, he’s seeking to encourage Black inner-city youth to seek support. Black men are even coming up to Johnson while he’s out to share that his book helped them consider therapy. 

“I was in the club a couple of weeks ago, and this guy came to me in the club — and he was like ‘yo, I saw an ad and I bought your book.’ And he was like, ‘Bro, I’m in therapy now because of your book,’” Johnson says.

Ultimately, as he speaks up about conditions like post-traumatic stress disorder, he hopes to educate the Black community on healthy ways to cope.

The post Black Boys and Men Deserve Mental Health Support Too appeared first on The Atlanta Voice.

The devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly on communities of color, has been a painful reminder of the racial and ethnic disparities that have long existed in our country. In the United States, Black people tend to have higher rates of chronic and progressive conditions, such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and cancer, and face greater obstacles when it comes to prevention, detection, and treatment. This is especially true in the breast cancer space.  

• Black women are often diagnosed at later stages and can often have a worse prognosis [1];  
• Black women face a 20% to 40% higher mortality rate despite overall rates of breast cancer in Black and white women being about the same [2];   

• Black women have a 39% recurrence rate and a 52% higher relative risk of death compared to white women [3]; and   
• Historically, Black women have been underrepresented as participants in breast cancer clinical research [4].   

Through allyship with community partners and leaders in communities of color, Pfizer is focused on continuing to improve diverse representation in breast cancer clinical trials. Most recently, Pfizer partnered with the Tigerlily Foundation to launch Health Equity, Advocacy and Leadership (HEAL) sessions to advance education around clinical trials for Black women with cancer. The program focused on:    

• Shedding light on the breast cancer journey for women of color.  
• Improving access to breast cancer clinical trials for women of color.  

• Building trust and enhancing the relationship between breast cancer patients and their care partners.   
• Educating women of color on clinical trials and strengthening their capacity to increase awareness and participation in breast cancer clinical trials.    
• Identifying barriers and determining solutions that can improve access to breast cancer clinical trials, with the hope of sharing these learnings in other treatment areas.   

 “Race, literacy, financial barriers, access, social, systemic and hereditary backgrounds should not be determinants of life and health equity,” said Maimah Karmo, President, Tigerlily Foundation. “There are significant opportunities to strengthen engagement among the Black community, healthcare providers and medical organizations, toward improving health and health outcomes. In order to bring about change, we have banded together with colleagues and friends to advocate for increased access and awareness of breast cancer research for women of color. We are excited to partner with organizations, like Pfizer, to work to transform systems globally – with one vision – to champion Black breast cancer as a social justice issue and eradicate as many barriers as possible that lead to loss of life for Black women.”  

Race, ethnicity, age, and sex can all impact how different people respond to the same medicine or vaccine. This is why diversity among clinical trial participants is so important. The more diverse a group of clinical trial participants, the more we can learn about the safety and efficacy of a potential medicine or vaccine for people who have characteristics like those of the participants. Participation is entirely voluntary and for those in a position to give it, it is a gift.  

As a leading global pharmaceutical company, Pfizer is committed to working with Tigerlily Foundation and communities of color to help reduce health disparities. The HEAL sessions provided an inspiring forum that reinforced old and uncovered new commonalities, obstacles, unique experiences of Black patients, and the gaps in access to clinical trials as an option to consider. Each session allowed Pfizer and patient advocates from the Tigerlily Foundation to have open and honest dialogues on the disparities for Black women living with breast cancer, and uncover potential solutions and tools for patients, caregivers, healthcare professionals, and clinical site staff.   

Carmen White, Pfizer Director, Multicultural Participant Experience said, “I’m so thrilled that the Tigerlily patient advocates, also known as ANGEL Advocates, are among our partners whose insights are being applied to Pfizer’s effort to improve the overall trial experience for future patients. I left each HEAL session moved and motivated.”    

Equity is one of Pfizer’s four core values. From medical grants aimed at actively reducing the disparities in care, to resources for patients, caregivers, and healthcare professionals to navigate their unique cancer journeys and treatment decisions, Pfizer has made it a priority to be inclusive, act with integrity, and ensure every person is seen, heard, and cared for.  

Representation matters in clinical research because it ensures that medicines and vaccines in development benefit all. The HEAL project demonstrates one way Pfizer is doing its part in ensuring women of color are represented in clinical trials. To learn more about joining a clinical trial, please visit pfizerclinicaltrials.com/learnmore. With your help, breakthroughs for all are possible.   

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A documentary short film highlighting BWHI’s work addressing inequities in Black maternal health.

Directed by Lisa Cunningham, the film is a project of United for Equality, a partnership between Strayer University and the Blackhouse Foundation that seeks to elevate diverse voices in filmmaking.

Our Chief Brand Officer Dawn Montgomery was featured in this project.

The post In Sickness and in Health appeared first on The Atlanta Voice.

Adults who were diagnosed with hypertension between ages 35 to 44 had smaller brain sizes and were more likely to be diagnosed with dementia compared to adults their age with normal blood pressure, according to a study published Monday in Hypertension, a journal of the American Heart Association.

Adults under age 35 had the largest reductions in brain volume compared to adults their age without high blood pressure, which could come with adverse health effects, said Dr. James Galvin, professor of neurology at the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine in Florida. He was not involved in the study.

“The smaller brain volumes in younger aged individuals as a consequence of their high blood pressure may put them at higher risk of dementia as they age,” he said.

Researchers used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans of 11,399 people ages 55 years and younger who were diagnosed with high blood pressure as well as 11,399 people without hypertension. The participants information came from the UK Biobank, a database of anonymous health information from around half a million people. The study authors did follow ups with participants over an average of 11.9 years later to see if they actually were diagnosed with dementia.

Hypertension is common in adults ages 45 to 64 and is associated with brain health and dementia later in life, but little is known about how the age of when high blood pressure is diagnosed affects these associations, said senior study author Dr. Mingguang He, professor of ophthalmic epidemiology at the University of Melbourne in Australia, in a statement.

“If this is proven, it would provide some important evidence to suggest earlier intervention to delay the onset of hypertension, which may, in turn, be beneficial in preventing dementia,” He said.

Having a smaller brain volume means there is a loss of neurons and the connections they have with each other, said Donna Arnett, dean of the University of Kentucky College of Public Health in Lexington, who was not involved in the study.

Larger brain volumes are associated with better cognitive function while loss of brain volume is associate with the development of dementia, Galvin said. Hypertension over time impacts blood flow to the brain and can potentially damage the brain structure, he explained. If left untreated, it affects brain function, Galvin added.

Over time, young people may be impacted more because they face a longer lifetime duration of blood pressure on the brain, Arnett said.

Preventing hypertension at all ages

It’s important to take care of brain health at an early age to prevent hypertension, which could lead to adverse health effects like a smaller brain size and dementia, Arnett said.

Getting enough exercise and eating a healthy diet can help lower high blood pressure, said Dr. Glen Finney, fellow of the American Academy of Neurology, who was not involved in the study.

Part of a healthy diet includes moderating alcohol intake and keeping blood sugar levels in the normal range for your age, he said. Reducing your salt intake can also help lower blood pressure, Galvin added.

If lifestyle changes are not enough, Galvin recommended speaking with your doctor about taking blood pressure medication.

Reducing other risk factors for dementia such as obesity, diabetes, high cholesterol and smoking also decreases your risk of developing dementia, Galvin said.

This study reaffirms the importance of young people getting regular health check-ups and taking good care of their health in early years, Finney noted.

If you notice changes in memory, thinking or behavior as you age, let a medical professional know, he added.

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